Naughty Or Nice, May You Find Coal In Your Stockings This Christmas
- USA Today‘s Ken Barnes and Brian Mansfield singled out Kathy Mattea‘s Coal as one of their picks of 2008. Mansfield also gave a nod to Jamey Johnson‘s That Lonesome Song.
- After counting down the best country music of 2008 at PopMatters yesterday, Juli Thanki returns with the best bluegrass. Two different Vincents make the list along with the progressive bluegrass group Punch Brothers, who are led by ex-Nickel Creeker Chris Thile.
- Daily Trivia: The oldest current Opry member, Little Jimmy Dickens, was born on this day in 1920. Unfortunately he’s absent from this weekend’s Opry lineup. Other notable birthdays are Bill Carlisle, born in 1908, and Janie Fricke, who was born in 1947.
- Country California‘s C.M. Wilcox scoured the book section at Amazon and perfectly matched several titles to different country stars as suggested gift ideas. For example, he chose How to Love Your Retirement: Advice from Hundreds of Retirees as reading material for Garth Brooks.
- Chris Parton calls attention to the new Jack Ingram video for “That’s a Man” on the CMT Blog.
- The staff at Country Universe reached the top ten in their countdown of the top 40 singles of 2008.
- Faith Hill filled in as a celebrity guest writer on About.com to share the Christmas traditions that she and husband Tim McGraw have started with their daughters. Who knew that Tim McGraw could make homemade spaghetti and sauce?
- The SteelDrivers, Jamey Johnson, Hayes Carll and Justin Townes Earle are speckled throughout American Songwriter‘s top 25 albums of 2008.
- Listen to “Country Boy” from Rosie Flores, who mixes the surf music of Southern California and the traditional conjunto and rock of San Antonio to form her own brand of rockabilly.
- Make today a Photocrap Country Christmas day.
- Our latest winner is Anna K, who picked up a copy of Joe Nichols’ holiday album in yesterday’s 12 Days of Christmas drawing.
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Faith Hill // Garth Brooks // Hayes Carll // Jack Ingram // Jamey Johnson // Justin Townes Earle // Kathy Mattea // Nickel Creek // Rosie Flores // The SteelDrivers // Tim McGraw
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December 19, 2008 at 11:24 am
Tim McGraw is part Italian! I recall him getting an award from the National Italian-American Foundation a few years ago.
December 19, 2008 at 11:29 am
Then what’s he doing wasting his time with Fritos? He needs to be the face of Skinner noodles or Ragu spaghetti sauce.
December 19, 2008 at 11:32 am
Just an FYI That’s the jolly-good-fellow Ken Barnes with the USA Today list, not Ken Tucker (who is not such a jolly fellow at all).
December 19, 2008 at 11:35 am
Whoops! Thanks for the catch, I got it fixed.
December 19, 2008 at 11:58 am
Faith loves it when Tim cooks up spaghetti and sauce, but she hates it when other women try to grab his meatballs.
December 19, 2008 at 11:58 am
I think Frito’s are to Italians what Spam is for the folks of Hawaii…
December 19, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Ha to Sam G.!
December 19, 2008 at 5:00 pm
USA Today’s Brian Mansfield includes Taylor Swift’s latest in his Top 5 and has this to say about it:
“Fearless, Taylor Swift. Reshaping next-generation notions of country music.” I have to agree with him on this one but Taylor is getting help from CMT.com where they now treat Colbie Caillat as a country artist. CMT.com even includes an artist profile of Katy Perry just because Taylor is such a big fan. Taylor’s growing legions of “Young Country” fans won’t have a clue what real country music is all about and won’t care either.
Chris Thile was on Prairie Home Campanion last week and brought the house down with a solo mandolin performance of a White Stripes song. Go figure….
Thanks for the Rosie Flores song link. Great stuff combining her Texas roots with her time spent here in LA as part of the local country music scene that was happening from the late 70′s through the mid 80′s. Even Vince Gill lived out here for awhile during that period and that’s how he met his first wife Janice.
Great job per usual by Trailer at PhotoCrap. Always appreciated.
December 19, 2008 at 5:02 pm
That’s the news, and now the weather …
December 19, 2008 at 5:46 pm
It appears a lot of iTunes buyers agree with American Songwriter about The Steeldrivers! Here’s the news (borrowed from CountryStandardTime):
“The SteelDrivers Go Number One on iTunes!
(Friday, December 19, 2008) The SteelDrivers were the number one seller on iTunes in 2008 in the “Americana/Bluegrass Album” category for their self-titled debut, beating out number two Alison Krauss and Robert Plant’s “Raising Sand.” (Wow!)
The SteelDrivers were also recently nominated for a Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group along with Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn, Sugarland and Lady Antebellum. Produced by Luke Wooten (Alison Krauss, Jim Lauderdale and Dierks Bentley), the release has received much acclaim.”
One more tidbit regarding “New Country”: Today in my dermatologist’s office the December 8, 08 issue of People Magazine described the Jonas Brothers as a “Hot Country Act”! I guess Taylor Swift’s reshaping of the notion of country music has already hit People big time! Uhoh….
December 19, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Rick I agree with you on CMT backing Taylor Swift pretty strong, almost to the point of profit over relevance. She is borderline country but now they are covering Colbie Calliat as if she is pure country herself. I did cover her on my website when she did something with Taylor Swift but other than that I don’t see why you would cover her.
I think more than anything and I am sure Chris and others can tell you news seems to be pouring in a little slow right now so that just might be part of it.
December 19, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Nashville4U, if all this wasn’t bad enough I’ve noticed that when CMT.com has its weekly blogs about new music video’s its reviewing they are now starting to slip in decidedly non-country acts. The newest blog includes a video from Nickleback! What?
Link: http://blog.cmt.com/2008-12-19/new-videos-from-darius-jack-kevin-and-nickelback-touch-down-this-week/
Also in Chet Flippo’s latest “Nashville Skyline” column listing good things he’s savoring from 2008 here’s me favorite entry:
“Seeing Colbie Caillat sing up close and personal. I already knew that she’s a very effective songwriter, but to watch her singing from a few feet away is to witness and hear a wonder of vocal phrasing. I was following a couple of her songs while looking at lyric sheets, and it was as if she were taking those words off the paper and singing them in her own personal language. And then, as if all that weren’t enough, she delivered a powerfully understated version of the song that persuaded her as a child to seek a musical career: “Killing Me Softly.”
Wow Chet, that’s just awesome….
December 19, 2008 at 8:40 pm
rick – i just finished reading the current skyline before seeing this thread …. and uh …. what was he thinking??? the more i read the more i just shook my head in total confusion.